The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-08-20
EDGARTOWN, MASS.

One smiles involuntarily at his first en-
trance into this remote, antique and quaint
village; it's streets are so mute and de-
mure; SO uncurbed by ordinary munich
pal regularity, independently meander-
ing everywhere; even SO coquettish in
their hither and yon goings; 80 duplicat-
ed and annexed by narrow, shy and shad-
ed lanes; altogether 80 curious, and plen.
tifully lined with friendly looking, well
come-speaking, transformations, yet COM
Portable and CHEEKY dwellings,; some of
them of an order Of architecture not much
later, certainly, than the era of the May
flower.
Quaintness in either character, style or
place has charm which few care to re-
sist. They may not be able to explain it,
but they acknowledge it. A new house
or village may be built Intentionally, or
artistically quaint, but the genuine article,
historic, traditional, hereditary, is an en-
tirely different thing. 1t may be found
in such spots as Nantucket and Edgar
town, and over almost the entire area of
Martha's Vineyard. Notice these little
fenced-in approaches TO the front door,
short lane, as though the house, conscious
of its hanging on to such sea-washed
shores, appreciated the propriety of hav-
ing a gang way, like a ship. Such little
oddities, together with some lingering
peculiarities of the people, augment con-
siderably the pleasure of those who re-
sort there for the embathing saltness of
both ain and water, rs also for the refresh
ing repose in which such places quietly
sleep.
Our cosy Edgartown begins to prepare
itself for it's nightly rest soon after the
nine o'clock evening bell (the curfew)
rings, and is not fairly awake again until
the same bell clangs out upon the air it's
seven O'Clock morning notes. A short
uoonday nap the town seems to take,
close following upon the twelve o'clock
bell. Then as promptly as every cup
board opens, every store door shuts. A
foreign lady, dropping in upon me one
day, at high noon, asked me to accompa-
ny her to make slight purchase. At
the first store door, locked Second.
lockedl Third, locked And so on. The
explanation was, as expounded it to her,
that it had been traditional custom,
from the dimly remote date at which
stores and shops began in Edgartown,
for all shop. keepers and Office clerks, to
spring to their feet at the first stroke of
the MONDAY bell, turn the door key, and
withdraw it, and proceed forthwith to the
midday meal. I said withdraw it, for
the withdrawal of the key is an essential
part OF the process, signifying that the
store is closed. The outward protruding
of the key from the door is the sign that
the proprietor is yet within.
The name of Edgartown" is one for
which no historian can account. "Old
Harbor" it was until the Duke of York
took possession of Martha's Vineyard
and the neighboring islands, and then, all
at once, the new name appears. The
harbor is one of the safest on all that
coast, and is of much beauty, as it bends
hither and thither around point after
point in its stretches inward and onward
toward Kstama and the ocean surf. It's
waters, though salt, are marvelously pure
and sweet, stirred by the fins OF ten thou
sand fish, and delightedly dipped into by
the bills of myriads of gulls that skim its
surface.
A highly honored and venerable spot is
Edgartown, especially as having been the
original home of the Mayhem family, SO
remarkable in its Eve successive genera.
tons Of missionaries to the aborigines OF
that and the neighboring islands, and Of
whom so many were won by them from
their degrading paganism to the exalted
plane OF Christian light and life. Here is
the grave of that excellent and patriarchal
man, Gov. Thomas Mayhem, who after
heightened life Of self-denying useful